Originally published on Pulse.

On my way into work before my interview with Hayden James, I listen to the dulcet tones of ‘Just A Lover’ as I chug across a Sydney slowly waking up, the track only hours into its Australian release. Its silky synths are chilled and relaxed, but the minor tones, plugging bass and classy piano coda reveal something deeper and more purposeful beneath. Half an hour later on the phone from Austin, Texas, James proves to be pretty similar.

A Sydney local contributing to its music scene for at least a decade, Hayden James did not, as much of the media is fond of allegorising, ‘pop up from nowhere’. James paid his dues with several years on the Sydney small club circuit, his time on the slog an important process in finding the kind of artist he wanted to be. “Just by DJing shit songs at clubs in Sydney… four - times - a week,” James says with thinly veiled fatigue, “I got bored of DJing other people’s music and found I wanted to do it myself. Those days helped me figure out what music I wanted to write and what kind of artist I wanted to be… if I hadn’t done all those gigs for a few years before I started writing music I probably wouldn’t be able to write the way I do now.”

Even once he delved into the world of production and discovered the kind of music he wanted to make, James still went through trial and error to fine-tune the creative process that would get him to the end goal. Though finding success with a few production groups and duos, even being signed by Future Classic, something still wasn’t falling into place. To put it more bluntly, “people have kind of fucked me around in a few of the groups I've been in”. Unsurprisingly, the solo venture beckoned… “I just think when you have a drive - a personal drive - that you've just got to go for it, because there will always be people that will hold you back sometimes or have excuses. So I thought, if I want to do this career I'm going to have to do it by myself. And it was the best decision I ever made.”

'Something About You' went gold in Australia

And the people concur. The last couple of years have been a career landslide for James, suddenly racing past milestones in months that can often take years. His first single as a solo artist, ‘Permission To Love’, charged to the top spot of blog aggregator Hype Machine, his second, ‘Something About You’, went gold in Australia, with his compatriots soon after rewarding him by popular vote with a debut into the illustrious Triple J Hottest 100 at a highly respectable entry point, #44. In the same year, his tunes were picked up overseas and now his already healthy Australian festival schedule has suddenly swelled across the globe to include the European festival circuit like Latitude and Glastonbury in the UK, Dour Fest in Belgium and US festival landmarks like Lightening in A Bottle and Neon Desert. He even scored a shoutout on the Lefsetz Letter, a blog with a global following in equal parts music industry stalwarts as regular fans. Sure, the accolades do not maketh the musician, but it must feel pretty sweet. “It's just amazing to have those kind of accolades for sure,” James acknowledges. “I remember when I first started DJing and I had like two gigs in one night in Sydney and that was a huge deal… and then you just start getting bigger and bigger moments like that and it's pretty crazy.”

Whilst any creative will crave acceptance on some level, James knows it can’t be the guiding principle to his work. “I'm not writing the music for other people, it's more like my story - you know what I mean by that? I don't mean like ‘I write it for me, fuck you’ [laughs].” With such a fast growing global profile, it’s more important than ever for James to know the kind of artist he wants to be, not get swept up in a wave of appreciation which, whilst warranted, is based on a few key tracks and his performance and positioning with other artists on line-ups. The Hayden James we know so far, writes smooth, funky electronica, which sits closer to an edgy pop song than a thumping club hit, but his festival gigs have positioned him in the midst of the high energy Australian main stage sound. “Yeah this new song is not what you'd call "a banger”… I think especially just in the Australian scene there's a lot of big, ditzy sound still happening and I don’t do that, but because I’m Australian and playing at these overseas festivals, I'm kind of just in the mix with everyone.”

The latest cacophony of sound and colour he’s been mixed up in is Delaware’s Firefly Festival, our phone call comes before the event when James had recently landed in Austin and is acclimatising to the heavier summer air of the deep south. “It is so hot here. It’s 7pm at night and it’s like 35 degrees (celsius) and the humidity is outrageous. It's kind of beautiful though… like a nice, warm hug if you've been out there for just two minutes.” Like a sweaty hug? “Yeah, like after sex.” With fast-paced travel suddenly a regular part of James’ schedule, there’s more to adjust to than climate. His creative process has adapted smoothly: “I'm trying to write more on the road now because I'm away from home so much. I've actually been using Garage Band on my phone a lot on the plane. It's good because my music is all about simplicity, and I can just get that really simple idea down on Garage Band and then bring it into Ableton or another music platform later on.”

Hayden James and a whole lot of fans at Listen Out Festival, Melbourne

Networking, especially at events, is another important part of his life which doesn’t come quite so easily. “I am kind of an awkward person. I can't just go up and be like ‘hey!’ - I need a connection made first. It's just a weird situation, isn’t it? But at the same time you've got to put yourself on the line sometimes and just go for it. There'll be a time when I can do that easily but not yet.” Fortunate, then, that the Australian electronic scene is already a tight one, and James has friends that go a long way back, not least of all the thrashing, drop smashing, bundle of adidas, Alison Wonderland. “We were just talking the other day,” James recalls,“helping each other out with tracks and all that kind of stuff. It’s cool being able to speak to someone who has come from where you come from… we both started in clubs in Sydney so it’s definitely a really cool family vibe.” A vibe which extends across the Australian scene - for all the right reasons of course… “whenever any of us is playing in any city we're at, we'll jump on a message and say yeah we're coming to support you - and drink your alcohol!”

The Australian dance music collective provides more support than just help with the rider of course, James often relying on them for honest feedback when stumped in the studio. “That’s the hard thing about being a solo artist - you don't have anyone else to write the music with and it can be a struggle. It's good to pass my work on to the Aussie guys and say, what do you think of this? Sometimes they'll come back and go, 'what? That's shit mate.’”

Production is one thing, but every contemporary artist needs to be the double-threat, and decide the best way to perform their creations to the masses. For James, it’s about working his way up to as live a performance as possible. “I think the best thing is to show the audience you’re actually doing something, not just be a dude on stage pressing a sample button: use your drum pads in a big way, or have a guitar accompanist on stage if possible. These are all things I definitely strive to improve on. At the moment it's still just me, but when I eventually bring an album out I'd love to bring a vocalist, and me sing as well, maybe guitars on stage with me… I want to create an atmosphere.”

For now, Hayden’s happy to see how 'Just A Lover' is received as he tours - and he’s not about to get ahead of himself. “Oh shit yeah, I definitely get butterflies. I don’t doubt the song or anything but I know it’s not like a crazy banger with a drop; I hope people just like it for what it is.”